Sock Experiments

I’ve been knitting up worsted weight socks for a while now and loving it—pretty colors and because they knit up quickly, I don’t get bogged down in thousands of teeny tiny stitches that never end.

I only make these socks for myself, though, because they are too thick for a person’s regular-sized shoes. When I wear these socks, which are great for our chilly Rocky Mountain weather, I wear Keds that are ½ size larger than my normal size.

Okay, if I really wanted to keep my feet toasty, Keds might not be the best choice.

Anyhow, I have three new yarns in the stash, all for socks:

Cascade 220 Paints/Hand-dyed; color is 9848. I’ve never used Cascade 220 before because I thought it wasn’t soft enough. But I’m seeing that there is a balance between softness and wearability.

Mountain Colors Weaver’s Wool; color is Thunder Head. (The Mountain Colors yarn I used previously was 4/8s Wool.)

Araucania Nature Wool Multi; color is 407. This is also a new yarn for me, but the LYSs are stocking it like crazy, so I have to try it out.

Oh, and I picked up one more yarn during my brief trip last week to Tucson:

Ella Rae Classic Print; color is 203. I bought this on sale at Kiwi Knitting Company in Tucson, which is a very friendly and welcoming store to visit. I try to drop in every time I’m in that city.

The above are all handwash-only wool yarns. I’ve been noticing that my Lorna’s Laces socks stretch out of shape easily, although they bounce back when washed. But if I’m wearing them around the house without shoes, the LL socks have a lot of give to them, which is annoying to me and could be a slip hazard for an elderly person.

I’m also not particularly happy with the way the LL socks are taking repeated washings. They are getting fuzzy and not looking so good.

Back to slippy socks. Is the slip-sliding action a LL phenomenon or a side effect of superwash yarns? My non-superwash Mountain Colors socks don’t stretch out, but my superwash Mission Falls socks don’t seem to stretch out either. Hmm.

Anyway, I bought the above non-superwash yarns to see how they wear.

I am knitting up the Cascade 220 Paints yarn now, and it’s looking good. I was concerned the yarn wouldn’t be soft enough, but one sock is almost done, and it feels great on my foot.

I’m doing calculations to begin knitting a summer top also. More on this later.